You're right. That's exactly what I mean.

Thanks.

Interesting new variants. One small question below:

10. Twin Murderers
Can digits be repeated in a cage?

Nikola

Oops.

10. Twin Murderers

"No digit is repeated in a cage."

Sorry, I will fix it.


Thanks.

Edited by Kwaka 2012-10-30 4:31 PM

Sudoku number 11 - Clue
Will be the extra rules in competition puzzle same as in the example?
What is an Arithmetic sequence? Does the numbers have to only increase or only decrease? Or is it possible to make sequence like 123234345?

Thanks

11. Clue
Yes. The extra rules in competition puzzle are same as in the example.
Also, an arithmetic sequence is a sequence of numbers such that the difference between the consecutive terms is constant.
For instance, the sequence 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, … is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 2. (From Wikipedia)
(123234345 is impossible )

Thanks.

Edited by Kwaka 2012-10-31 8:07 AM

Thanks

Hello. In example 4 (Weighted Killer), r5c2 should be 18 not 21. The answer grid next to it is correct. Please don't tell the fugitives that I have become an informer !

Regards, David

Sorry for mistype.


14. Prison Break

For example, 6 and 9 are given in a pentomino and 1 and 4 are listed below. Then, only known information about 14 is 'there can not be 2,3,5 in the pentomino'.
(1. can't say anything about 6,7,8 and 9
2. 1 and 4 appear at least once
3. don't know how many 1,4 are in there)

Edited by Kwaka 2012-11-01 9:20 PM

I just changed what you said, informer!


Thanks

11. Clue
Example of an arithmetic sequence
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
2-4-6-8-10-12
4-7-10-13


1-2-3-2-1 NOT arithmetic sequence
2-4-6-4-2-4 NOT arithmetic sequence
1-2-3-2-3-4-3-4-5 NOT arithmetic sequence


ONLY increase or ONLY decrease.

So for the arithmetic sequence, it has to be 123456789 or 987654321?

If a sequence has length 9, then 123456789 or 987654321.

But right now you don't know how long the sequence is.

Also, there is only one line in 9x3 area in the problem 11. Clue in the PB.

Don't worry about that.

There will be no confusion if you see the PB.


Thank you for letting me know about that.

Edited by Kwaka 2012-11-01 9:52 PM

Hi, It seems great idea of the theme but I also have few questions.

1. Puzzle no 9 Little killer with extra region: There are several extra regions shaded grey. If they touch each other and my printer doesn't print these colors differently enough, then I have a problem. Is there anything I can do to avoid it?

2. Puzzle no 10 Twin Murderers: Instructions say that the pattern of numbers entered in the left and the right grid are identical. If patterns are identical, then it doesn't mean that there have to be the same numbers. Let me explain! In the IB, you can easily switch 2-s and 3-s in the first grid and the pattern really is the same as in the other grid. Is there a double solution in IB, or do you mean that the numbers (not pattern) have to be the same in both grids? (I hope my point is clear).

TiiT

Hi. Here are answers.

1. Puzzle no 9 Little Killer with ER
You don't worry about that. They don't touch each other. I'm so sure that you won't meet that color problem.

2. Puzzle no 10 Twin Murderers
Actually I used an instruction of Puzzle no 18 Double Murder of USPC 07. (Country using English as a mother language)
Sorry to you if you confused about that.
I mean that the numbers have to be the same in both grids.


Kwak


Edited by Kwaka 2012-11-02 2:48 PM

Thanks, It's clear now :)

TiiT

Do we have online solving enabled for this test?

Sorry, forgot to post, there won't be any online solving. It is because of the last sudoku "Prison Break".
May be we should explore, if we should enable online solving even in cases where 1 or 2 sudokus are not solvable online.

Edited by Kwaka 2012-11-03 11:12 AM

15 pages of the PB? It is too much, don´t you think?
I believe that two grids per paper are always enough. Also big grids slow the solving, because it is not easy to look at the whole grid with one view.

Anyway I really enjoyed some of the puzzles. Those I have solved in time were very tricky and nice for me. But I spent just 7 minutes until my printer deal with such a huge amount of papers (because it froze I wasn´t able to rewrite the sudokus on paper).

I'm very sorry about that.
I hadn't thought of that problem because I usually print out 2 pages per sheet when I take this kind of test.

Anyway, thanks for enjoying the test.

I think password-protected-pdfs for the tests should be designed such that players should just "Print" the pdfs without thinking / trying to find out a) whether I should print the first page b) whether I should print 2 pages per sheet etc. They should just press Control + P, and hit enter.
That is the reason almost all LMI tests (except annual contests) password-protected-pdfs don't have cover page. But we do not enforce any other formatting criteria. Having just one grid per page is too much in my opinion. But as we saw in FF2, there were lot of complaints because the grid sizes were small with 2 grids per page.

Some of these, e.g. Clue, Prison Break are better on a bigger grid for markings IMO. Also, Fake Treasure and Twin Murderers are fit into 1 page. So you're left with just a few that might have been smaller, and still not too small. The size of grid differs from person to person and adding to what Deb said about last weekend's test, its difficult to set the right size. I think viewing the entire grid shouldn't be a big problem, if it does decrease the speed by a little amount, its the same for everyone.

I enjoyed the test, thanks for writing it!

I have my own habits in printing for tests.
My printer is veeeeeery sloooooow, although it is not an old one.
For that reason, I decide before I hit the start button, which puzzle I want to start with, and I print out first only the page that contains this puzzle. I choose for a draft print to increase the speed for this page. It then still takes about 45 seconds before I can start solving.
While the printer is busy, I hit the print-button again, to print the entire file, this time in a better quality. By the time I have finished my first puzzle, the entire printout is ready, or at least enough pages to choose from to continue.

I always have difficulties with the huge grids. I think mainly because I am not used to it.
When creating puzzles, I always make cells with a size of about 1 centimeter, which is not too small so you can write notes in it and it is also not too large.

When cells have a size of (about) one centimeter, you can easily fit two puzzles on a page, especially when the instructions don't ask much space, what can be done using a smaller font size.

Richard

Thanks for the very nice test.

There are some really nice sudokus and also some interesting new ideas.
Territorial conflict was great, even if I think that I should have solved it faster. I like when you have to think globally and not only locally to solve grids. This was a very good example (so simple when you understand what is the trick...).
Little multiplication killer was probably my favourite: a very clever construction, very nice solving path.
Ditto with little killer with extraregions.
The logic of jail sudoku is also very interesting.




There are lot of online tournament that have 1 grid each page. Lot of previous monthly tests; sudokucup has also actually this format, with 15 sudokus, one per page.
Last WSC had also this format, even with bigger grids.
I think there is nothing wrong with having only one sudoku on each page. This is a matter of comfort for each player, I know some players who like very big grids, others, like you, prefer to have smaller grid (2 grids per page).
Sometimes it's not convenient to have 2 grids per page, when rules are complicated it can represent a big text. When you have outside clues, you must have even smaller grids, which is ok if players don't have to write lot of pencilmarks inside the grid.
Here I see not matter to complain about the format.
The only thing is that the pdf is perhaps a bit too big, and it can also have an influence on the printing process I think.

Fred